Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

• Mark 16:1-7

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

• John 21:1-14

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

• 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

• Matthew 27:51-53

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs helped a boy who fell off his bike.  In the process, she made a new friend and the boy and his single father went to church with us.

This week, she was doing some online Easter shopping.

I asked, “What are you looking for, Babs?”

Babs scrunched her nose, “Easter bonnets.  And I might get you a top hat.”

I groaned, “I do not need a top hat.  Why are you looking at these purchases?”

Babs smiled, “Easter is just a little over a week away.  We need something for the Easter Parade.”

I shrugged, “Where do you think we should go?  Fifth Avenue in New York is a little out of our way.”

Babs asked, “Is Tracy such a secular city that they do not have an Easter Parade?”

I snickered, “Tracy is one of the best cities in the world where you can worship God, but I have not heard of an Easter Parade since I was maybe ten.  But don’t let me stop you.  Get the bonnet and you can wear it to church.  The ladies try to look extra special that Sunday.  And we will have to get there very early.”

Babs asked, “Why is that?”

I sighed, “The CEOs will be out in full force.  Standing Room Only for Christmas and Easter, but for the CEOs, it is Christmas and Easter Only.”

Babs scrunched her nose, and she thought for a minute.  “Oh! CEO, Christmas and Easter Only!  But isn’t being a Christian an every hour of every day thing?”

I shrugged, “Yes, but the CEOs are like the Pharisees of the time of Jesus.  They show up to let everyone know how wonderful they are, and they don’t even have to go to church every Sunday to be that wonderful.”

Babs sighed, “But I go to church every Sunday because I’m not wonderful.”

I laughed, “And that is why Christmas and Easter are overflowing with people.  They do not understand, but they want that feeling of belonging.  Remember what Jesus said that even some people who cast out demons will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Their hearts were not right.”

Babs asked, “So, why do they show up if it is not going to do them any good?”

I sighed, “For one thing, they do not know that.  And just showing up every Sunday all your life does not work either, but we can save that for another day.  We need to focus on what happened that first Easter morning.”

Babs asked, “The empty tomb?  Mary Magdalene and the other women found the tomb empty.  Mark said that they said nothing, but they at least told a couple of disciples and Peter and John ran to the tomb.  But Jesus told Mary to have them go to Galilee.  So, they go to the sea and go fishing.”

I nodded, “And Jesus meets them there, but Jesus appeared to them twice in the upper room first.  We know that because Thomas was not with them the first time.  He was with them the second time after he confessed that he doubted that Jesus had returned.  Then, Thomas was with them on the boat as they fished.  But the thing is that they took Mary Magdalene’s word and went to Galilee.  In those days, they did not listen to women so much, but Jesus did.  And it took the disciples a while, but they started listening to the women because Jesus did, and Jesus talked to the women.  Remember the Samaritan woman at the well and the woman who touched his garment and was healed from an issue of blood.”

Babs scrunched her nose again, “So, why did Jesus appear to the women first?”

I smiled, ‘They were the ones who did what was necessary to prepare the dead body for eternal rest.  They were rushed when Jesus died.  They had not finished the process.  So they went back after the Sabbath was over.  The men might have still been asleep.  Oh!  That reminds me.  There is a sunrise service at the church.  We will get ready.  We will go early.  Then we will have breakfast in the fellowship hall.  Then we will have Sunday school and church again.  That is when it will be crowded.  The CEOs don’t like getting up early either.”

Babs moaned, “But I like my beauty sleep.  Why do we even have a sunrise service?”

I smiled, “Some would say that we are reenacting what the ladies did that morning, but some denominations do not call the day Easter.  They call it ‘Resurrection Sunday.’  And isn’t the sun rising each day a resurrection of sorts.  God’s re-creation of a new day, as the song goes.  If we have a clear morning, the sun will come up and the sunlight will shine through the stained-glass windows to make little colored lights dance over the pastor’s head during the sermon.”

Babs giggled, “That sounds like you have been distracted during the sermon.”

I huffed, “Hey!  It takes a while after I wake up for my brain to be focused.”

After laughing at my confession, Babs paused for a moment.  “I always thought that Easter was a celebration that Jesus died for our sins, but if we thought of it as Resurrection Day, we are celebrating that Jesus rose from the dead.”

I sighed, “But let’s not forget that there was a resurrection, of sorts, on the first Good Friday.  When Jesus died, according to Matthew 27, the curtain for the Holy of Holies ripped into two pieces and many people who were dead rose from the grave and were seen and recognized by people in Jerusalem.  That little bit shows that Jesus will be true to His word.  We will rise from the dead and be with Jesus forever.”

Babs sighed, “And that sounds so nice.  I absolutely do not deserve it, but God is good.”

I replied, “All the time, and all the time…”

Babs giggled, “God is good.”  She paused for a moment. “Harold, you don’t need a top hat, but I am going to get a simple bonnet and add some flowers to it.”

“Oh, please, Babs,” I replied.  “Don’t get fresh flowers.  We don’t need Robert Burns sitting behind you watching a louse come out of a flower and eating his lunch in your bonnet.”

Babs scrunched her nose yet again, “And what is all that about?”

I chuckled, “I may be Dutch, but I have had Scottish friends at times.  Robert Burns wrote a poem after he sat through a church service watching a louse having lunch in a woman’s bonnet, the louse being in the blossom when the servant cut fresh flowers that morning.  And Burn’s conclusion was “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion: What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us, An’ ev’n devotion!”

Babs huffed, “And what does that mean?!”

I laughed, “Oh, would some Power the gift give us To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion: What airs in dress and gait would leave us, And even devotion!”

Babs snickered, “Okay!  I will use artificial flowers from the craft store.  I will save the fresh ones with lice in the blossoms for the CEOs.”

I smiled, “Ah, you picked up what the bard of Scotland meant.”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

One of those conversations with my wife was very early in our marriage, maybe our first Easter, when she attended church, and I had been called in to work “to save our little corner of the world from an explosive disaster.”  But before I did not know that I would miss being there, I talked about her getting an Easter Bonnet.  I even sang the song.  This is the song that I sang (Bing Crosby singing In Your Easter Bonnet from Holiday Inn – 1942)

My wife became enraged.  She insisted that I had the words all wrong.  That is when she sang the following song.  (sung by Sam Ash – 1918, an Irving Berlin composition)

For the next several years, when we had an argument over something that I thought was trivial, she would ask, “Is this another Easter Bonnet – Show Your Dimple clash again?”  I would say, “no,” but then I would change the subject.

I am known at the “Hat”, “Hatrack”, or the “Hat Man,” but I do not have a top hat.

The line about God’s re-creation of a new day comes from the hymn Morning Has Broken by Eleanor Farjeon.

Many years ago, when we lived in northern Mississippi while I worked on a NASA project, we went to my brother’s church, about two hours south of where we lived.  The front of the church was almost due east, and when the sun came up during the sermon, the light came through the stained-glass windows and did a dance around my brother while he preached.  For that to happen, the sun had to be in the right place, the orientation of the church building had to be just right.  I think it was God’s doing.  When the church was built, they did not have daylight savings time and Easter is set to a lunar calendar and the sun might have never been in that exact spot on any other Easter morning.  But on that Sunday, the dancing lights were special.

The full title of the Burns poem is To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church.  Robert Burns always sat in “his pew.”  He always wanted to see the pastor while he spoke, important in actively paying attention for anyone. But the lady with the bonnet and the flowers and the louse, did not get the memo on the bard’s desires, and she sat in front of Robert Burns, blocking his view of the pastor with her hat.  Thus, the distraction was obtained honestly.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.